Abstract

MATOS TAMAYO, Modesto Elmer; WENDY, Gousse  and  RODRIGUEZ FERNANDEZ, Zenén. Characterization of the reoperations in general surgery. MEDISAN [online]. 2013, vol.17, n.6, pp. 890-901. ISSN 1029-3019.

Introduction: in spite of the advance in the current diagnostic and therapeutic methods, the morbidity and mortality caused by reoperations due to postoperative complications continue to be high. Objectives: to characterize reoperated patients according to selected variables and to identify the mortality levels. Methods: an observational and descriptive study of 172 reoperated cases was carried out in the Service of General Surgery from "Saturnino Lora Torres" Clinical Surgical Teaching Provincial Hospital in Santiago de Cuba, during the five year period 2007-2011. Results: most of the reoperations were carried out during the first week of the postoperative period to patients of the male sex with advanced ages and whose initial surgery had been an emergency. The main complications motivating them were: intraabdominal abscess, evisceration and postsurgical hemorrhage, although the highest percentage corresponded to pneumothorax and colon neoplasia. Mortality reached 24.5% and it prevailed in patients with initial diagnosis of colon neoplasia, complicated gastroduodenal ulcer and intestinal occlusion. Conclusions: the age, the number of reoperations and the lapsed time from the initial surgery to the reoperation elevated the mortality rate, associated with multiple organs failures.

Keywords : reoperation; surgical diagnosis; postoperative complications; morbidity; mortality; secondary health care.

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